Knights battle in 2nd half but fall to Barrington
By Gary Larsen

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One more Mid Suburban League win for Barrington and the Fillies will accomplish one immediate and pressing goal.

"We really want to play BG again," Fillies senior Molly Pfeiffer said.

BG, of course, is Buffalo Grove, which won 2-1 over Barrington on April 15 in their regular-season meeting. BG won the MSL East, and the Fillies' 2-0 win over Prospect on Wednesday put them one win away from a rematch with the Bison in this year's MSL Cup.

"I would have liked to see us get the third goal but I think in the second half our kids kind of put it in cruise control, and tried to manage the game, which isn't necessarily a good thing," Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said.

"But they know there's another game (on Friday) that's pretty important."

A win over Palatine on Friday would secure the West division for the Fillies and pit Barrington (11-4-1, 7-2-1 in MSL play) against Buffalo Grove (19-0-1, 9-0-0) with a conference title on the line.

With a 1-point lead in the West over Conant, Barrington took on a team in Prospect (11-6-2, 4-5-1) that went into the game on one day's rest after a Tuesday game against Fremd.

The Fillies wasted no time, scoring less than a minute in when Pfeiffer buried a head shot goal off a Mia Calamari corner kick.

"We just weren't ready and when you give a team like Barrington an uncontested goal -- and credit (Pfeiffer) for finishing it but if you're not going to challenge it, it's going to be very difficult for you," Prospect coach Tom Froats said. "So we put ourselves in a hole in that first minute."

Pfeiffer took little credit for finishing on the play.

"Mia played a great ball. It doesn't get any better than that," Pfeiffer said. "I don't even think I jumped. If Mia doesn't play a good ball there's not a chance to score. I'm just there to guide it in."

Calamari begged to differ.

"That's all on my team. I just put them in there and they finish them," Calamari said. "You can't do anything if you can take a free kick but there's nobody there to finish them, but Molly Pfeiffer, Jenna (Szczesny), Alex Avers -- they all do a really good job."

Szczesny put Barrington up 2-0 at 12 minutes with her 17th goal of the year, on a feed from Annalise Avers. But if the Fillies' home crowd sensed a pending blowout victory, Prospect had other ideas.

"Those two goals were powerful on the board but I look at everything else we did in this game and I think we had a lot of positives," Froats said. "In the second half we kept them on their half of the field for a good amount of the half."

Prospect junior Kristen Frasco knew what was needed to reverse the flow of Fillies running into Prospect's defensive third.

"After halftime we knew we had to come out with a lot of energy," Frasco said. "They were winning every fifty-fifty ball and we needed to start getting to every fifty-fifty ball. We had to beat them to it.

"That's what's been happening these past weeks -- we haven't been coming out as strong as we need to. We have to believe that we can do this, that we can be every bit as good as them, and I think as a team we came together and believed that we could do this. We have to believe we're a good team."

Froats applauded Frasco's role in helping the Knights turn the tide in the second half.

"She stepped and won some fifty-fifty balls and challenges, and those are the things we've asked for them to do," Froats said. "Now we're starting to see that we can do that against the good teams, like the Barringtons and the Fremds, and tonight I thought I saw a glimpse of what we can be if we choose to be that kind of team,"

While Prospect did indeed spend time on Barrington's side of midfield after halftime, finding a quality shot against the Fillies and keeper Hannah Luedtke was another story.

"(Defenders) Carrie Caplin and Meredith Slott are doing really, really well and Gabby (McLauren) just came in because we had some injuries and we haven't missed a beat with her back there," Stengren said. "And everyone else has been steady."

Calamari hit the crossbar with a 35-yard shot and Pfeiffer sent a head shot wide of frame in the second half, but Prospect keeper Eileen McTigue and her back line mates kept Barrington out of net after the break.

And midfielder Calamari showed again that she's more thana free kick specialist and a player with a long throw-in.

"She's a possession player as well," Pfeiffer said. "We have a lot of girls that are fast or bring other things to the table but Mia calms the game down for us. When we're all over the place, with her body language and her play, Mia settles us down and that's a huge thing that we need in the middle of the field."

Barrington plays at Palatine Wednesday in its bid to advance to this year's Soccer Bowl, while Prospect hosts Wheeling Thursday, before this year's MSL crossover games on Tuesday of next week.